Liverpool Beats AC Milan in European Champions League

While it was heartbreaking that Liverpool and not Chelsea played AC Milan in the Champions League final, the drama of the match almost made up for it. Liverpool came back from a 3-0 deficit at halftime to win on penalty kicks. And UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, says Liverpool probably won’t be allowed to defend the title. Can the rules get any dumber?

Precisely why AC Milan collapsed so badly in the second half will be the subject of debate all across Italy for years. Having taken a 1-0 lead in the first minute, and running it up to 3-0, the mostly plausible explanation is complacency. Even then, Liverpool’s third goal was a penalty kick rebound. After an extra 30 minutes, the score remained 3-3. And so it was down to penalty kicks.

Of all the miserable ways to finish a championship, there is nothing worse in all of sport than soccer’s penalty shoot-out. Five kicks a side from the 10 meter spot isn’t any way to determine victory, especially for tournament that has run for most of a year. Far better to play an additional 30 minutes and require each side to remove a player or two every five or ten minutes.

But as silly as the penalty kick shoot-out is, UEFA has an even dumber rule. The Champions League is drawn from the best teams in each nation’s league (La Liga in Italy, the Bundesliga in Germany and The Premiership in England) based on the teams’ place in the previous years final standings. England’s top four teams this year are Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Liverpool’s cross-town rivals, Everton. Liverpool and its fans have been told, despite winning the title, that they aren’t in next year’s Champions League because they finished fifth in the Premiership.

Now, precedent was set in the 2000-01 season, when Real Madrid got to defend despite a fifth place finish. The Spanish soccer federation gave Real Zaragoza’s place to Madrid. If the English Football Association were to give Everton the boot in favor of Liverpool FC, that would be consistent, but what of Everton’s fans? Surely, in a tournament that runs 9 or 10 months, there’s room to let the Champions League’s champions defend their title. After all, some teams ease up on their league competitions to win the other trophies when they see they can’t catch the leaders. The good news is that UEFA meets on June 17 where they will be able to take on this stupidity. The bad news is that they’re doing it in Manchester, not Liverpool.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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